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BurmaNet News: 26 April 1995 [#157]




------------------------- BurmaNet ---------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
--------------------------------------------------------------
The BurmaNet News: 26 APRIL 1995
Issue #157
--------------------------------------------------------------
NOTED IN PASSING:

          "[They are] like children staying under [our] roof"
                    SLORC officials on why they could not control
                    the "DKBA" troops who attacked two Karen
                    refugee camps. <See THE NATION: TWO DEAD, 11
                    WOUND IN BURMA BORDER CAMP CLASHES>

BY THE NUMBERS:

300-400   The number of DKBA/SLORC troops who crossed the border
          to attack the Karen refugee camps, according to BKK
          Post reporters and witnesses from the camps.

3-4       The number of DKBA/SLORC troops who crossed the border,
          according to Thai Army Commander Wimol Wongwanich.

30        The number of Thai troops held at gunpoint at one camp
          by whatever number of DKBA/SLORC troops actually
          crossed the border.

6         The number of Thai troops who were evacuated by
          helicopter from another camp because they were
          surrounded by whatever number of DKBA/SLORC troops
          crossed the border.

Several   The number of Karen refugees forced back into Burma at
hundred   gunpoint by the DKBA/SLORC troops.

2         The number of Karen children shot dead so far by the
          DKBA "children."



Contents:
--------------------------------------------------------------

BBC: MICHAEL ARIS DENIED VISA
IRRAWADDY: PRISON VISIT
IRRAWADDY:NO MORE CONTRACT WITH TATMADAW
FEER: PAPER TIGER
FEER: BACK WHERE WE STARTED 
AW: MYANMAR'S FORCED LABOR
AW: MANDALAY AND SUU KYI
THE NATION: TWO DEAD, 11 WOUND IN BURMA BORDER CAMP CLASHES 
THE NATION; THAILAND THE FIRST PORT OF CALL FOR ILLEGAL
          IMMIGRANTS
THE NATION: SENIOR OFFICIALS ADMIT CORRUPTION RAMPANT IN
          IMMIGRATION DIVISION
THE NATION: LONG BORDER PROVES TO BE ENTRY ROUTE FOR ALIENS THE
THE NATION: ILLEGAL BLAMED FOR CRIME RATE RISE
THE NATION: GOVT TO PROTECT AGAINST KAREN INCURSION 
BKK POST: MEKONG PANEL TO INVITE BURMA, CHINA TO JOIN IN
BKK POST: BURMA VOWS GAS LINK " READY  ON SCHEDULE" 
BKK POST: THAI- BURMESE PANEL TO DISCUSS REFUGEE ISSUE 
NATION: TWO DEAD , 11 WOUNDED IN BURMA BORDER CAMP CLASHES
WASHINGTON POST: 2 LETTERS--BETTER WAYS TO DEAL WITH BURMESE
                    HEROIN
SCB: MYANMAR ETHNOLOGUE WEBSITE ON-LINE
BURMANET: SLORC BARES ITS FANGS
DASSK: EMPOWERMENT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
BURMANET: THINKING ABOUT VOLUNTEERING?
INFORMATION ABOUT BURMA VIA THE WEB
CONTACTING BURMANET BY SNAILMAIL, FAX OR PHONE

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BBC: MICHAEL ARIS DENIED VISA

BBC  World Service
April 25, 1995
21:16
East Asia Today
------------------------------------------------ 

Cue: The United Nations Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros Ghali has complained to the Burmese government
over its refusal to grant a visa to Michael Aris, the husband of
the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who's
currently under house arrest in Rangoon.  Mr. Aris last
visited his wife at Christmas last year.  A spokesman for the UN
Secretary-General said Dr. Boutros Ghali had asked the
Burmese government to review its decision.  From New
York, our U.N. correspondent Rob Watson now reports:


-------------------------------------------------------

The chief spokesman for the Secretary-General said that Dr.
Boutros Ghali had learned only recently of the Burmese
government's decision to refuse Michael Aris a visa.  The
spokesman said the Secretary-General had now asked the
Burmese government to take a prompt review of its decision.  He
didn't say how the protest had been made, but he did say that as
yet there had been no reply from the Burmese
government.  Mr. Aris has in the past been allowed access to Aung
San Suu Kyi, and it's unclear precisely why permission has been
refused this time.  One theory is that the  Burmese government was
angered by his bringing out a statement
from his wife after his last visit.  The U.N. has been trying to
persuade the Burmese government to improve its human
rights record for some time.  It's called for the release of Aung
San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners ever since it began a
dialogue with the government at the end of last year. 


Statement issued by the Spokesman of the United Nations
Secretary-General in New York at the noon press briefing,
25 April 1995:

The Secretary-General has, since the beginning of his
dialogue with the Government of Myanmar, urged that Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi be released as soon as possible and that,
meanwhile, she be allowed broad contacts with the outside
world.  He has recently learned with grave concern that Dr.
Michael Aris, the husband of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has
been unable to obtain a visa to visit his wife.  He has
expressed to the government of Myanmar the hope that this
situation will be promptly reviewed.

--------------------------------------------------------------





--------------------------------------------------------------
IRRAWADDY: PRISON VISIT
Irrawaddy Independent News & Information
Vol 3 No.14, 15 April 1995
ADD: P.O.BOX14154, SILVER SPRING, MD 20911, U.S.A

                             INSIDE STORIES




Recent report from Rangoon indicated that prisons are painted and
clean. Some sources suggested Rangoon generals may allow UN and
the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) to visit prisons.
UN Special Rapporteur Yokota said in his recent interview:  The
actual visit is not yet conducted but there is a positive   real
efforts are being made between the ICRC and the government to
agree on the memorandum of understanding on which the ICRC will
start the visits to prisons. 

So I'm hopeful that this will be done quickly, an actual visit
will be taking place.
(B.I.G Inside sources)


IRRAWADDY: NO MORE CONTRACT WITH TATMADAW

 While they (Slorc leaders) are celebrating the Armed Forces Day,
founder of our Tatmadaw's daughter is being detained,  said a
recently-released prominent political prisoner in
Rangoon. As July is  her getting closer many people wonder whether
Suu Kyi will be freed. 

 But things are very depressing,  complained many Rangoon
residents.  We are just waiting to see her,  said Thaung Htun who
opened a tea shop in Thamine. He adds,  If we see her face again
we will go and rally around her. I don't think they (Slorc
leaders) have any clue how to control it.   

Definitely, Slorc generals will not let it happen. That's why they
still hold her and still cannot decide when and how to release Suu
Kyi. 

Two prominent political prisoners Kyi Maung and Tin Oo who were
freed last month reportedly said they wanted to see Suu Kyi but
said they are in no position to go and see her unless Slorc
arranges the meeting.  We cannot just go and see at her house, it
is impossible,  said one of the NLD leaders in

Rangoon. Ex-Col Kyi Maung is reportedly reading TIME and other
international and local magazines to catch up with current events.
He reportedly told family members, visitors and NLD members who
came to see him,  I don't even know who is Bill Clinton!  

In fact, my contract with Tatmadaw is over since Gen Ne Win staged
a coup,  Kyi Maung reportedly said. Former NLD chairman Tin U
reportedly taking mediation - trying to avoid to meet foreign
journalists.

Sources close to Kyi Maung said they had signed documents
before they had signed documents before they were freed
conceding they had broken Slorc laws.

  But they didn't have to sign any other documents or make deals
with Slorc,  the sources said, adding that they were warned  not
to get involved in politics again .

 They should be very careful, the situation is not good for  them
to move and talk freely  said one friend. Another added,  I don't
think they will make any quick decision - If they do, the price
is quite high for them. They cannot just go back to stay in prison
for another four or five years .
Kyi Maung and Tin Oo's residences were said to be under
constant surveillance by soldiers as well as undercover
intelligence officers.

They keep reporting and watching who came to visit their
houses,  said the Rangoon source.   They are also tapping
their phone so it is unsafe to talk on the phone,  Despite the
watchful eyes the sources reported that  Many NLD members and MPs
are visiting their houses. They all seemed happy and
excited. 

But not far from everybody's minds was the fate of Khin Maung Swe,
an elected NLD MP who arrested last year for being too outspoken
after he met with journalists.
 (B.I.G Inside sources) 



FEER: PAPER TIGER

For several weeks, Burma's state-run daily, New Light of
Myanmar, has run a series of articles attacking the rebel KNU.
This in itself isn't unusual, but the author is. The more
than 20-part series, entitled  Whither the KNU?  Was written by
Lt-Col Kyaw Thein, a leading member of Burma's Directorate Defence
Services Intelligence. Kyaw Thein is considered relatively
liberal, meeting readily with foreign journalists and diplomats. 

In the series, however, he attacks the foreign media and calls 
certain journalists and foreign aid workers  spies  and  sly
tigers.  The vitriolic series may be an attempt by Kyaw
Thein to placate military hard-liners, who are less than happy
with the DDSI's comparatively conciliatory approach to Burma's
insurgents. (FEER ) 

AW: MYANMAR'S FORCED LABOR

Your EYEWITNESS picture, "People in Chains" [April 7], is
worth more than the pro-verbial thousand words. In it you have
crystallized the true, tyrannical nature of the [Myanmar] military
junta. The State Law and Order Restoration
Council [Slorc] treats civilians as serfs in bondage to the army.
Even more telling is the brazen display of chain gangs
such as this in city centers. To add insult to the wound, Slorc
strongman Gen. Khin Nyunt has the gall to say that the
Burmese people have a tradition of offering voluntary labor. Those
chain gang workers are the ultimate rebuttal. Tens of thousands
of civilians, too numerous to be chained, are also
forcibly toiling on grandiose Slorc projects.

The Slorc wants to tap into the bonanza that tourism is
earning for countries like Thailand. Those with wonderlust should
ponder that the roads they will be traveling on, the moats around
the ancient palace of Mandalay, and any tourist spot are being
built and refurbished by chain gangs and the forced labor of the
hapless Burmese people.

A tourist dollar spent in Myanmar is a dollar for the Slorc to oil
its repressive machinery. Look into your conscience before you pay
a call on your travel agency.

Dr. Samuel Lin
Hong Lok Yuen
Hong Kong
                                                                
        

AW: MANDALAY AND SUU KYI

I am a professional and a mother and housewife whose husband is
working in Indonesia. I have nothing to do with politics but  am
compelled to clear a misunderstanding against my government of
Myanmar. It is incorrect to compare our country with South Africa
and its apartheid policy and Mr. Nelson Mandela with Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi as done in "writing on the Wall" [EDITORIALS, Feb. 24].

White European migrants denied every right to, and treated as
non-humans, the 70% black population in their own ancestral lands.
We have no such racial discrimination at all. Yes,
we still do not have political rights as in some Western
countries but we have other rights: to travel, come back, go out,
open dollar accounts and such like.  It has been a tremendous
change from the past. The farmers are doing very well and
studious, conscientious people have advanced in careers as in any
other country. Many well-to-do and successful Burmese are
returning home on their own, starting businesses and doing well.

Mr. Mandela suffered every indignity for 27 years in the worst
island prison in the world. Treated as a criminal, he was under
conditions of rigorous imprisonment. He had to work with criminals
breaking stones in a quarry. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is restricted
- I repeat, restricted - to her own house with her own servants. 
Her husband and sons visit her and can stay with her as long as
they wish. She lives in a mansion by a beautiful lake together
with some of her relatives who see her on a daily basis. She is
not forced to be under these restrictions. Since Dec. 19, 1990,
which is Nobel Prize, she has been given the choice to be with her
sons and husband if she leaves the country and does not meddle in
its politics. As a mother I have sympathy for her being away
from her children but it is her own decision that she is
there. 

An honest approach is needed to understand the politics of
Myanmar. I am aware of quite a number of the current
anti-government activists. A large number of them wasted their
years in college, ended up as clerks or unemployed, joined the
[Yangon demonstrations] in 1988 and are now enjoining themselves
with foreign funds they receive by mouthing what
is written for them.

That is the reason their ranks keep splitting. I wish them well
but they are hardly the material to build democracy in Myanmar.

                                        
A Myanmar Professional 
[name & address provided]
Jakarta
                                                                
 
                                                                
       
                                                                
        
                                                               
AW: BACK WHERE WE STARTED 

India's Lohias are coming home and moving upmarket

The place, Rangoon. The year, 1962. Over the previous 15
years, H.B. and N.R. Lohia, two brothers from the dusty little
town of Ratangarh in India's desert state of Rajasthan,
had built a solid business in Burma's capital as import agents -
buying manufactures from the industrial would with earnings from
Burma's natural resources.

Then came Gen. Ne Win's coup d'etat. Like every other business in
Burma, the Lohia' was nationalized. hundreds of thousands of
Indians, resented as predatory outside middle-men, left Burma.
Most went back to India and remained small-scale traders. (madras
still has the water-front bazaar they started, selling smuggled
consumer items.) But the Lohias struck out east, initially to
Bangkok, where they already had a small trading operation, then
in the early 1970s to Jakarta.

That proved a wise choice. Instead of returning to an India where
the private sector was about to be clobbered by nationalization
and ever-tightening investment controls, the Lohi
as got in at the first stirrings of Southeast Asia's
industrial growth. Their Indorama Synthetics became Indonesia's
biggest polyester-fibre and yarn producer, and Indorama chem-
icals a sizeable producer of agrochemicals in Thailand. The only
investment back in South Asia was a synthetic-textiles firm called
Ashok Textile Industries. Started in Nepal in 1963, it became that
country's main local manufacturer. 

Bur five years ago, a younger generation of Lohias began
returning to India. Today, Om Prakash Lohia and Ajai Prakash Lohia
- respectively the first and third grandsons of the
late H.B. Lohia - are building two substantial business groups in
India. (Grandson No.2, Sri Prakash Lohia, still runs the family
business in Jakrata, and No. 4,  Anil Praksh Lohi
a, the operations in Bangkok.)
In five years, says Ajai, the Indian operations will be equal in
size to the Southeast Asian
activities. Om Prakash is essentially replicating on the
Subcontinent Indorama's Synthetic
has one of India's biggest polyster-spinning plants. In march it
completed the 67,000-
tonne-a-year first stage of a $50 million polyster-fibre and yarn
plant at Nagpur, Maharas-
htra state. And already Om Prakash is working on a $300
million expansion that would
raise capacity to 235,000 tonnes a year by 1997. (He recently
scrapped plans to fund the
expansion through a Euro-issue, opting instead to raise 3.2
billion rupees [$101 million]
through a domestic issues in July.
Meanwhile, the group has ventured in an entirely new
direction. Its core product,
polyster, is discretely low-end. But Ajai's Uniworth group, clutch
of three Indian-listed
companies, is moving into fine wool, the suiting material of
India's elite, most of whom
still have clothes made to measure.
Most of Uniworth's rival spanners are unknown outside India. But
after only five years of
operation, Uniworth is a achieving a global presence in this
mature industry. The group's wool-spinning arm, Wool-worth India,
has 28,000 spindles at its plants in Raipur, a fast-
growing industrial town in Madhya Pradesh state. In December it
opened a second plant at Nagpur, with 22,000 spindles. In October,
a third unit with 22,000 spindles opened in Bangkok, operated by
nearly formed Indoworth Thailand. Woolworth already ranks among
the world's 10 biggest wool spinners, Ajai says. The
largest, such as Japan's Nippon Keori, have double Wool-worth
sales."We aim to catch with them very soon" says Ajai, "Just as
soon as we can expand our market."

Industry professionals give the group high marks for quality.
"They would have to the best in the world in term of modern
machinery and equipment," says Warwick Rolfe, an
international marketer of Australian wool who recently formed a
business partnership with Uniworth. "They still have some teething
troubles, but the product they're putting out is
very, very good."
 With the additional capacity and ready markets in Europe, Ajai
estimates Woolworth''s
revenue rose by half in the year just ended to more than 1.5
billion rupees in the coming
12 months, the first  in which the Nagpur plant will run
year-round.
India's recent tariff changes should help the company. Last  year,
the government cut
duties on raw wool to 25% from 40% and it's under pressure from
Australia to drop them
further. On the export side, however, Indian's textile
producers are losing their
developing-country tariff preferences in Europe. This will slip
Woolworth's frofit margin
by two or three percentage points says Ajai. "We just have to
compete, whether or not
our costs are lower. We have to bring out costs down."
Because it exports nearly all its output, Woolworth will
remain exempt from corporate
income taxes. This year's net profit should rise sharply from last
year's 233 million
rupees. The reason, in addition to the capacity expansion:
Woolworth cut it interest bill by
converting some debt to equity, and raised 900 million rupees
through an August rights
issue.
That will dilute earning somewhat, but Ajai says Woolworth plans
no future capital-raising
any time soon. The family owns about 34% of Woolworth equity, and
has interlocking stakes with other listed Uniworth arms (although
not with the Inodrama companies in
India, Thailand or Indonesia - all groups are independently owned
by various Lohia holding companies). Although Woolworth is just
the sort of up-and-coming firm foreign investment funds are
looking for, Ajai says he's happy with a register dominated by
small Indian shareholders. Andhe shuns practice, common in India,
of trying to manage share prices, Says Ajai: "We don't buy or sell
a single share ourselves."

The surviving founder, N.R.Lohia, now 75, is still regarded as
ultimate head of the group. But the dispersal of the Lohias'
younger generation around the far-flung family
empire gives everyone a bit of corporate turf - and helps
prevent the bitter dis putes that often cleave Indian business
families when the second or third generations become active.
Despite success overseas, the Lohia still display many touches of
the "Marwari" trader, as
businessmen from their part of Rajasthan are often known. Ajai
defers to his great-uncle,
who has adopted him as a son, and he keeps an elder brother's eye
on Pawan Lohia, 22
years old and N.R. Lohia's only son. Pawan is with Ajai in
Calcutta to learn the business.
Generations of hiding wealth from overdrawn maharajas and
indebted peasants in
Rajasthan - plus the Burma experience - also seem to have left an
instinctive secretiveness
about some aspects of corporate are listed, Ajai divulges
little about the group's ownership
structure. He also shuns displays of wealth such as
chauffeur-driven cars and fancy attire:
Quite often he slips a cardigan over his business shirt and tie,
and walks home.
Costs are low. Corporate headquarters are in Calcutta, where
office rents are a fraction of
those in Bombay or new Delhi. Raipur is not the bizarre
location it seems. It's a junction
for express railway lines crossing India, with capacity enough for 
Woolworth's high-value, low-volume consignments. Raipur's
small airport has daily jet
connections with New Delhi.
Most importantly, Raipur has a young work force only too
grateful for jobs in a modern
factory. The ever age age of Woolworth's shop floor workers is 22,
and each costs the
company about 1,500 rupees a month.
Meanwhile, Uniworth is expanding vertically in the wool
business. A separate listed company, Fabworth India, is getting
into weaving, dyeing and fishing fine-wool suitings.
Ajai claims quality far surpasses that of other Indian
producers. "Until we came ever exported," he says.
Publicity for the "Uniworth Collection" is the start of a push
into ready-made garments at the top end of the market. Ajai says
Uniworth has designers at work in Italy, Britain and
Japan. And to help achieve quality in dyeing and weaving,
Uniworth recently bought out John Glad-stone, one of the oldest
wool-fishing houses in Huddersfield, a mill town in
northern England. "We are building up Uniworth as a food brand
name," says Ajai. "We hope one fine day we'll see it as the top
label." 

In September, it went to the other end of the production
chain, putting A$2 million ($1.5 million) into a joint venture
with Warwick Rolfe's wool brokerage at Forbes, in rural New
South Wales. 

Uniworth Australia will secure a steady supply of fine Merinon
wool direct from the farm. Eventually it will market Uniworth
products in Australia.Both the Uniworth and Indorama
groups are still relatively new players in India, and neither is
a widely known business name. Among financial analysts, however,
the Lohia are well regarded.  "The company plans are firm, and
from the investor's point of view they have good prof-
itability," says Soman Mukherjee, executive director of
calcutta-based broker IFB Securities. "The management is sound and
their projections are reliable."

So the family return to India on a strong footing. But even now,
Burma 1962 still hovers in the Lohia consciousness: It was a
factor in the decision to lace Woolworth's second
plant at Nagpur, and not expand at Raipur.
"In India we are always protecting our back, so we can be
operating all the time," says Ajai. "We didn't want to put all our
eggs in one basket."






THAILAND THE FIRST PORT OF CALL FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
26 April 1995

Thailand is the transit hub in the region for illegal
immigrants en route to the developed world. With the help of
corrupt officials and lax penalties, the demand for the
service has enabled an elaborate network of human trafficking
agents to flourish.

The United States remains the most favoured destination for
illegal immigrants wishing to escape their own country.
However, the old days when cash-strapped immigrants could make it
to the  land of milk and honey  by boat are long gone since the
US enforced tougher measures against illegal immigrants. Nowadays,
it takes a significant investment to skirt the
immigration law and make it overseas illegally.

For most, Thailand is the first port to immigration
authorities who have raked in huge amounts of money allowing
immigrants to depart Thailand on fake passports.

Sometimes those who plan to seek out a new life in the States hide
out in neighbouring countrys, such as Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam,
while their agents in Thailand arrange for their fake documents.
As soon as the necessary documents are ready, the immigrants are
trucked into Thailand and they take a flight to any number of
eastern European countries which do not require entry
visas. From there it's direct to the US.

Most of these immigrants, ranging from 20 to 40 year
s of age, come from Fujian province in China. But it's only for
those who can afford the very  expensive charge - anything from
Bt600,000 to Bt750,000. Immigrants who want to settle in the US
must also produce a reference from the States to guarantee that
all expenses will be paid to the agent as soon as they set foot
on American soil.

But where does this lucrative scam begin? What's the first step
for illegal Chinese immigrants who want to make their way to the
States?
First they must contact a local agent in China who in turn links
up with a broker in Thailand. The first payment of
around Bt25,000-Bt30,000 is paid after they come to terms with the
Thai agent.
Human traffickers claim the first payment will be spent on bribing
Thai authorities to turn a blind eye to the immigrants as they
make their transit through Thailand. The bribe will also secure
immigrants immunity from legal prosecution if they are arrested.
Accommodation is then arranged for the immigrants while a fake
passports and visas are prepared. A further Bt65,000 is paid once
the documentation is in there hands. The balance is paid only
after they arrive the United States.
People who seek to illegally settle in a third country are known
as  piglets  but the trafficking rings prefer call their clients 
ducklings.
Police said the business is  as lucrative as the drug
trafficking racket but criminal prosecution carries only a light
penalty compared with convictions on drug-related
charges.
 If they succeed in sending immigrants abroad, they can earn
Bt200,000 to Bt300,000 from each one,  a source from the
Police Department said.

Police said they face an uphill task to crack down on the
business and accused some corrupt authorities of making that task
even harder by conspiring in the racket.

In fact, human trafficking is an international industry. Many
trafficking rings have a large network covering China,
Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines,
Japan, Korea and the United States.

Normally,  piglets  enter Thailand with genuine documents, but
some of them also slip into the country illegally through the
northern border provinces. They are then given lodging in and
around Bangkok.
According to the source, there are at least four people _  Hia Bu
, - who get in touch with their  contacts  at Don Muang Airport.
These immigration authorities facilitate the safe passage of the
piglets without fear of detection.
 If there are any immigrants to be sent out that day, one of these
four people will inform the corrupt airport authorities details
about the immigrants. They then communicate by code to make sure
they are let through without any hassles,  said the source.
According to the source,  Hia Rak  is the most notorious man in
the trade for forging documents. He is established in
Bangkok's Lardprao district and has been in the business for a
long time. He buys genuine passports and transforms them into fake
but believable equivalents. His subordinates are mainly Chinese.
 Hia Rak  has established a reputation for having an uncanny knack
in dealing with immigrants. He is also reportedly
cheaper than others in the trade. Further, he has links in the sex
trade and has a very close relationship with immigration
authorities.
 Hia Pure  is more adept at working in the flesh trade than human
trafficking. His business once thrived in Bangkok but when he was
put under close scrutiny he shifted his centre of operation to
Phuket International Airport.
Finally,  Od  or  Doctor  as he is known, has lost most of his 
clients  to worthy.
While things don't always go as smoothly as they would like, human
trafficking gangs have contingency plans that often
rescue their piglets from spending time in the pen.
When piglets are arrested at the airport, the gangs manage to
remove their clients from the grasp of the law. In the event of
an arrest, piglets are investigated by a group of
authorities who are involved in the trafficking itself.
The authorities will then given genuine passports which
piglets used to enter Thailand to other investigators and then
suggest they be deported to their countries piglets will be
released and sent to a safe house by the gang.

There are a few Chine gangsters who provide  temporary 
lodgings for piglets who fail to get out of the country. The
shelters are scattered over Bangkok. They include: a
safe-house in the Ram Intra area owned by  Je O , another on
Sukhumvit Road owned by  Je Moa , on Wongwien Soi 22 owned by  Hia
Jua  and on Suthisarn Road owned by  A Ping .

Apart from the large-scale operators there are also some
small-time racketeers in the human trafficking business. Many of
them are also involved in drug and prostitution and some have
criminal records. (TN)

SENIOR OFFICIALS ADMIT CORRUPTION RAMPANT IN IMMIGRATION
DIVISION
26 April 1995

SENIOR police admit that corrupt officers are involved with the
criminal syndicates which are cashing in on illegal
immigrants The Immigration Division commander, Pol Lt Gen
Kiattsak Prapawat, said his division had been plagued by
corruption  for a long time .
 I'm trying to solve the problem by prosecuting [the corrupt
officers] or transferring them out of my unit.
 I have the names of some suspects and they are being
investigated. Tough measures will be taken against any
officers who are found guilty,  he said.

Illegal immigrants always entered Thailand on foot, sneaking in
through the forests which cover the border areas.

This made it difficult for immigration officers to catch them.
Many of them were abetted by criminal syndicates.
 The country's borderline stretches about 8,000 kilometres, so it
is difficult for officers to prevent illegal entries,  he said.
According to a National Security Council estimate,
 there were more than 500,000 illegal immigrants in the country.
Burmese made up the highest number, followed by Chinese,
Kiattisak said, without giving more precise figures.
Some of the immigrants remained in Thailand, employed as cheap
labour, while others chose to travel to a third country,
particularly the United States or Europe.

Kiattisak said the Immigration Division was cooperating with US
officials to monitor the racketeers who move illegal
immigrants from Thailand to a third country, but he declined to
reveal more details.

Corrupt officers were known to have helped illegal immigrants
leave the country, he said.

Sometimes they helped foreign criminals forge migration
documents. Kiattisak said  more than 99 per cent  of the fake
passport and visa stamps found in Thailand were the work of
foreign criminals, particularly Burmese and Pakistanis.
Pol Maj Gen Ammarin Niamsakul, commander of the Police
Department's Foreign Affairs Division, also said he suspected
corrupt officials helped illegal immigrants leave for a third
country.

 I cannot confirm that some airline officials or police
officers have any involvement [with the criminals].
 But I think that without help from the officials concerned, many
illegal immigrants with fake passports could not escape the law, 
he dais.

Officials were keeping a close watch on known criminal
syndicates believed to be active in the illegal immigrants racket.

For example, a syndicate known as the Snake Head is sending
illegal immigrants into the US,  he said, adding that the
syndicate was believed to have Thai accomplices.
Most of the migrants who wanted to sneak into the US were
Chinese, he said. 

 They enter Thailand from the north through the thick forest that
grows along the border.

 They disguise themselves as Thais or some other nationality and
then look for fake passports with visas for the US,  he said.
Ammarin said he could not give a precise figure for the number of
illegal immigrants in Thailand, only that the number was  large.

In most cases, fake passports do not work. So they usually try to
get into the US by sea, landing near the border between the US and
Mexico.  (TN)




LONG BORDER PROVES TO BE ENTRY ROUTE FOR ALIENS
26 APRIL 1995

Thailand's shared with Cambodia, Burma, China and Malaysia are not
a boon for tourist and traders _ illegal aliens also make frequent
use for the "log border".
Eager workers from Cambodia can slip into any of Thailand's
eastern border province, but Sa Kaew is the most popular
choice. In Aranprathet district, foreigners can enter some markets
which do cross-border trade without showing an
document.
Illegal immigration plagues the northern border province -
numerous Chinese and Burmese cross the border at Tachilek, where
checkpoint officials allegedly accept bribes.
But with mountains stretching from Mai Sai in Kanchanaburi
province, illegal immigrants altogether. However, the
mountains are full of tiny communities where "new faces" are
easily spotted by local people, and aliens using this entry method
face a higher risk of arrest.
In the South, Ranong province provides the easiest access to the
Thailand for Burmese. A majourity of the male immigrants come to
work in in the fishing industry, while most of the female aliens
become prostitutes.

"The Interior Ministry allows illegal labours to work in Samut
Sakon, Chanthaburi and Ranong because they are cheaper to hire
than local people. The industry wants the industrial sector to
remain competitive, but they are many negative side effects from
(the ministry's method of doing so)," the police
department said.

An increase in crime is one effect caused by the many
immigrants flocking to Bangkok for work, according to Pol Maj Gen
Rangsit Yanothai, Central Investigation Bureau
commissioner.

According to the police figure, there is a total of 7,276
illegal immigrants in Bangkok and Thonburi - but Rangsit said the
actual number must be several times highers. (TN)

ILLEGAL BLAMED FOR CRIME RATE RISE
26 April 1995

APART from working illegally and being a threat t Thailand's
security, illegal immigrants often turn to crime and have been
involved in a number of grisly murders.
Two killing occured late last year, one of them especially
gruesome.
ON SEPTEMBER 30: Two ethnic Burmese men from Burma's Shan
State murdered a woman and her daughter at their house in
Bangkok's Phasi Charoen district.
The woman, also from the Burmese state, was stabbed several times
in the back. Long, vertical wounds were also found her abdomen,
which was slit open and her on of the murders.
The young girl's neck was broken.
When the woman and daughter were murdered, the husband, a
Taiwanese, was not at a home.
The killed, Chai Daoruang20, and Som Ruangkham, 26, were
arrested three days later. They confessed and told police the
double murder was "an act of vengeance".
The said the woman's father, a village headman at Shan State, had
sent Chai's father to jail on charges of land ecroachment. Chai
and Son later sneaked into Thailand and work illegally in Bangkok.
They met the woman victim's younger brother by change and the man
later invited them to his sister's house, which he also shared.
Chai said when he saw the woman he realized that she was a
daughter of that village headman, but she seemed to have
forgotten what happened to his father and appeared unaware of the
danger she was in.
After visiting the house a few times, Chai and Som went there on
Sep 30 when only the woman and her daughter were at home. He said
he told the woman about his father and then killed her with a
knife he found in the house. Som killed the young girl by breaking
her neck with his hand.

ON OCT 23: A Chinese illegal immigrant was strangled with an
electric cord at a Condominium in Bangkok's Pravet
district.The victum, Meng-i Lee, 48, was killed by another Chinese
man (Torku Sue) was sent by a criminal racket in China which
smuggles Chinese into other countries, according to
police.

Torku was arrested that night at a travel agency in Bangkok as he
was arranging to return to China. (TN)

TWO DEAD, 11 WOUND IN BURMA BORDER CAMP CLASHES
26 April 1995

AT least two Burmese were killed and another 11 wound in two
separate clashes on Sunday between an estimated 200 armed
Burmese and Karen intruders and Karen refugees security forces at
two Thai border villages in Tak province.

The first clash at Kley They Loo village in Tha Song Yang
district took place in the morning leaving one Burmese dead and
7 other wounded, according to Karen refugees sources.

The second skirmish, in which one Burmese was killed and four
other injured, took place around 1 pm at Mae Wei Krik village,
about 25 kms north of Kley They Loo, the sources said. The clashes
lasted about 30 minutes.

The intruder, both Burmese army troops and the DKBA, also
burned down a number of houses at Kley They Loo and threatened to
came back again and attack thousands of refugees along the border
if they did not return to Burma.
The source added that the incurders, who were believed to have
spent a night on Thai territory, burned down a number of
houses at Mae Lor village on Monday. The sources did not know if
any Karen refugees security forces were killed or injured during
that incident, or how many houses were destroy.

Third Army Commander, Lt Gen Surachet Dechatiwong, admitted
yesterday the clashes did take place, but did not confirm
either the number of intruders or causalities. He said the
information about the incidents that he received yesterday
remained "very sketchy" and he still had to verify what he had
been told.

However, he said he raised the issue yesterday morning with the
Burmese delegation led by the Burmese army's Southern
Commander Maj Gen Ket Sein, which is Phjitsanulok attending the
11th Thai-Burmese Regional Border Committee meeting.

Surachet said he told the Burmese officers to help oversee border
security and prevent similar incidents from occuring. He added the
Burmese delegates agreed to comply with the request but said they
could not "strictly control" the DKBA forces "who are like
children staying under their roof".

The Thai Commander also quoted the Burmese as saying the
common border, which is separated by the Moei River, is over
100kms long and impossible to tightly seal off.
Supachet said Thailand has constantly reinforced the border area
with more security forces but would still have to provide more
protection along the frontier.

Opposite Mae Sot District in Tak has prompted authorities to halt
a plan to repriate refugees in the province. A survey showed there
are more than 53,000 Burmese refugees in Tak. Meanwhile, Surachet
said the Thai delegates proposed that

Burmese immigrants be repatriated via the southern Thai
province of Ranong and the Burmese border town of Kawthaung, when
other bilateral issues were discussed at the meeting
yesterday.

The Burmese delegates agreed to consider the request, he said.
According to Surachet, Ranong and Kawthaung were chosen as the
points along the border where repatriation would take place
because they are relatively peaceful.(TN)



MEKONG PANEL TO INVITE BURMA, CHINA TO JOIN IN
26 April 1995

THE newly-established Mekong River Commission will extend an
invitation in July to Burma and China to join its body, a
senior Lao government officials said.

Kithong Vongsay, President of the Lao Mekong Committee, said
invitation letter to the two countries would be issued  
Cambodia, which is chairing the first formal meeting of the
commission in Phnon Penh in July.

Mr Kithong's committee is in charge of issues concerning the
Mekong River and the Commission.

The decision underlines the commission's attempt to have all
countries sharing the Mekong River to be included in the
organization of the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok.
In a speech prepared for the ESCAP meeting, Mr Kithing said his
government is looking forward to Bejing and Rangoon 's decision
to be part of the commission.

However, Burma and China have not yet indicated whether they will
apply to become new members despite saying they will
cooperate with the four countries.

In Rangoon, Burmese and Chinese Official said they had not made
a decision to join the commission but will cooperate with the body
to develop the river.(BP)

GOVT TO PROTECT AGAINST KAREN INCURSION 
26 April 1995

THE government will protest to Rangoon against the incursion of
Karen Buddhist Forces into Thai territory in Tak province Sunday,
Government spokesman Akapol Sorauchart said.

His conforming of the brazen incursion by some 200 members of the
DKBA into Ban Mae Lor and Ban Mae Woei, Tha Song Yang
District represented a contrast to earlier claims the Army that
no such intrusion had taken place.

Mr Akapol said Prime Minister Chuan had asked Defence Minister
Vijit Sookmark about the incursion which was first reported by the
Bangkok Post on Monday.

The Prime Minister, he said, was also told that in the course of
the incursion, the commander of the paramilitary ranger unit
posted near a Karen refugee camp in Ban Mae Woei, Maj Puvadol
Kamsom, was temporarily detained by intruders.
According to Mr Akapol, the Prime Minister said he left the
incursion was a serious issue because it constituted a
violation of Thailand's territorial sovereignty and said a protest
must be lodge with the Burmese government. Earlier yesterday, the
Army issued a statement denying the Bangkok Post report as
"inaccurate and may cause damage to the Army and the country in
a way that will cause the Thai people to lose faith in the
efficiency of the armed forces and also in a way that will give
a wrong impression of the Thailnd's
national security among foreign investors and thus
discouraging them from investing in the country."
The Army statement continued: "... this newspaper has a
previous record of presenting reports in such a manner on
several occasions without cross-checking with the Army or
concerned authorities.
"Such conduct has raised susciption about it hidden motives. The
army reconfirms the policy of Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Wimol
Wongwanixh that it will never allow foreign forces to violate our
territorial sovereignty if there is an incursion. The Army however
admitted that about 150 DKBA troops,scattered in several groups,
were sighted inside Burma opposite the
Karen refugee camp in Ban Mae Loei.

Third Army Region commander Lt-Gen Surachet Dechartwong said he
had asked his Burmese counterpart, Maj Gen Khet Sein, the
commander of the Sorthestern Forces to see to it that no
Burmese or pro-Rangoon forces crossed into Thailand.
The request was made at the 11th meeting of the Regional
Thai-Burmaese Border Committee held yesterday in Phitsanulok.
Lk-Gen Surachet said he have received a report that only 4-5 DKBA
crossed the border to intimidate Karen refugees. TO
ensure the incident was not repeated, he said reinforcements had
been sent to the border.

The commander said Maj-Gen Khet Sein had responded to his
request, but admitted the capability of his troops to watch the
entire Thai-Burmese frontier which has long not been
barricaded.

A KNU representative told the Bangkok Post yesterday two DKBA
troopers were killed and about 10 injured when they crossed the
border and clashed with KNU fighters guarding the Mae Woei and Mae
Lor refugees camps.(BP)

--------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON POST: 2 LETTERS--BETTER WAYS TO DEAL WITH BURMESE
                    HEROIN
19 April 1995



Lally Weymotith ["Smack Land," op-ed, March 24] gets a few of the
details  right but shows a near-total misunderstanding of the
issues in Burma.  The  arguments  of those whom Mrs. Weymouth
patronizingly calls the "human rights crowdS  are not
adequately presented in the context of the drug problem, An
effective  response  to this problem can only be undertaken in an
open society with  transparent policies, an independent judiciary,
an independent police force and a  free press.  Not one of these
conditions is remotely fulfilled in Burma today. 

After reviewing the situation in the Shan State, Mrs. Weymouth
concludes  that  "bilateral engagement with the Burmese on
counter-narcotics policy is an  essential first step." By the
Burmese she means, of course, the  self-appointed  State Law and
Order Restoration Courcil (SLORC). 

To date SLORC has won  high points for two things, and not much
else: for clinging to power and for insincerity.  It has been
insincere in failing to honor the results of the  1990  elections,
in its clumsy stagemanaging of a farcical constitutional 
convention and in its negotiations with Aung San Suu Kyi, the
internationally respected leader of the democracy movement (which,
by the way, was not "snuffed  out' in  1988 and is very much
alive).  Can we really expect SLORC to make sincere  efforts to
tackle the drug problem?

In realistic terms, it is not a question of whether
"counter-narcotics  assistance to Burma can be resumed without
compromising the  administration's  international commitment to
human rights' (whether it has such a  commitment is 
another question), but of whether such a resumption would be
effective,  Given  the current situation in Rangoon, the answer
is obvious. It would not. 

PETER  SKILLING
Nonthaburi, Thailand


Lally Weymouth rightly notes the immense rending effect that
importation  of  Burmese heroin is having on America's social
fabric.  Regrettably, her  course of action to remedy this
situatioh is unrealistic, and some of the facts she  uses 
to support her position are unfounded. It is implauisible to
suggest American rriititary aictiori against drug  producers.
Against widely dispersed guerrilla armies along Burma's 
mountainous  frontiers, such intervention would be' ineffective
unless tens of  thousands of  U.S. ground forces were committed
for an indefinite period to fight a  jungle war against local
people on Burmese soil.  An air campaign would need to  attack 
supply routes in China and Thailand to be effective.  None of the
three  Asian  governments involved would permit these actions,
whirh would be folly to  undertake even if invited.

Further, Mrs. Weymouth's identification of Khun Sa as "key to the
heroin problem in Burma overstates his importance.  Although
dealing withthis renegade warlord is necessary, demonizing him is
not.  An even higher priority  should be  the much larger problem
of heroin trafficking abetted and perhaps aided  by  Burma's
military junta, the State Law zind Order Restoration Council. An
example of why this is important is the United Wa State Army,
which  Mrs.  Weymouth says "operates independently of the Burmese
goveminent.' The Wa  forces  in fact operate under a cease-fire
with the military regime, which allows  them  to grow opium freely
and to trade inside and outside Burma without  restrictions.

Another crucial heroin trafficking group, the Myanmar National
Democratic  Alliance Army of the Kokang ethnic group, also
operates unhindered with  permission of the junta.  Heavy trucks
from both these groups can be seen  plying the rough roads from
opium-producing areas through the Burmese town of  Lashio to
Mandalay without the slighest interference.

It must also be recognized that the militiry regime's brutality 
is a  huge part of Burma's heroin problem.  Govornment repression
denies ethnic  peace  and overall democracy in Burma and thwarts
economic develovment, the  orily 
long-term answer to opium growing.

The Clinton administration can only damage Burma's long-term
prospects  for  reduction of the heroin trade by initiating new
cooperation on drugs or  other  matters with the SLORC
dictatorsbip.  President Clinton should heed  imprisoned 
Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who insists still,
after six  years in detention, that the only deal with the
dictators must be one that leads  to democracy.

THOMAS R. LANSNER
New York



--------------------------------------------------------------
SCB: MYANMAR ETHNOLOGUE WEBSITE ON-LINE

Ethnologue Dbase(Myanmar) Site
moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     soc.culture.burma        5:22 AM  Apr 25, 1995
(at ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp)  (From News system)

Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Ethnologue Database(Myanmar)Page from the Imperial College is on
the WWW. Page provides indices to the Dbase from the
Ethnologue(12th ed., 1992).

http://www-ala.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rap/Ethnologue/eth.cgi/Myanmar 
It includes Alternate language & dialect names, Genetic
affiliation, Geographic, Geological and population of
language speakers' information, etc...

Here is excerpts:
"Native speakers of burmese seldom speak a second indigenous
language. If they have a second language it is usually
English. It is the second language of many educated speakers of
other languages. It dominates the nation's publishing
production. Myanma is the largest ethnic group; another is
Baramagyi(Barua). Burmese script Educated speech has many
pali borrowings. Rawang people call them 'Myen'."


Moe K. T.
moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://triton.ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~moe/moe.html


--------------------------------------------------------------
BURMANET: SLORC BARES ITS FANGS
April 25, 1995

One close observer called the refusal to grant a visa to Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi's husband, an example of SLORC baring its fangs. 
Those fangs are also on clear display in the attacks on refugee
camps up and down the border.  There is a viciousness to its
behaviour at present, but there is a some method at least to the
SLORC's madness.

According to a usually accurate analyst, the current attacks on
Aung San Suu Kyi, the camps and the Karen National Union have as
common ancestors, events of late last year.  As late as October
1994, the SLORC was negotiating with their "dear sister," Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi.  The Australians and Europeans were promoting
"benchmark diplomacy" while the Americans were offering "two
visions," one of which spelled out rewards for good behavior.

At least three events seem to have come together and snuffed
whatever optomism hung in the air six months ago.  One was the
visit to Burma by China's Li Peng ("The butcher of Tienanmen
Square").  Li reportedly carried with him a message that whatever
the SLORC did, they would be supported by their Chinese patrons. 

The second event was a speech by Aung San Suu Kyi read out in
Manila by Corazon Aquino.  Suu Kyi was reportedly trying to signal
to her supporters that she was not caving in under pressure from
SLORC, as rumours then had it.  The speech in Manila was followed
a month later by a statement read out in Bangkok, which stated
explicitly that she had not retreated from her demands for
democracy.  The speech, according to the analyst referred to
earlier, seems to have enraged the SLORC for a number of reasons. 
First and for whatever reason, SLORC thought that Suu Kyi would
buckle, or at least could be "managed."  She proved that she would
not, and could not.  The SLORC seems also to believe that the
Manila speech was written by her husband, Michael Aris.  It is
this belief, along with their anger over the Bangkok message that
seems to offer at least partial explanations for his current
exclusion.

The third and widely covered event was the mutiny in the Karen
ranks which finally came to fruition last November and December. 
The split between a small group of Buddhist zealots and the rest
of the KNU presented a target of opportunity that the SLORC may
have gone after notwithstanding assurances from China or
"provocations" by Suu Kyi.

To anyone living outside a cave, the belief that Aris wrote the
speech rather that Aung San Suu Kyi does not make a great deal of
sense.  Even if her signature was not on the paper, its topic
should be enough to blame her rather than him.  She has only ever
written about Burma, Burmese intellectual history and democracy
in Burma.  He, a Tibetanist, has written on essentially nothing
else.

For opponents of the regime, all this should come as a sign, if
any more were needed, that SLORC is not exactly dealing with
reality.  For those on the net who have been wondering why "Lion"
and other SLORCites have been so vitriolic in their attacks on 
Suu Kyi and her husband, some bells ought to be going off just
about now.

And finally, given the unpleasant nature of today's news, it may
be of some value to end by reposting in full the last message sent
out by (and yes, written by) Aung San Suu Kyi:

--------------------------------------------------------------
EMPOWERMENT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
by Aung San Suu Kyi

[Address to a meeting of the World Commission on Culture and 
Development, Manila, 21 November 1994, to be presented on behalf
of the author at her request by Mrs Corazon Aquino.]


At its third meeting held at San Jose, Costa Rica, 22-26 February
1994,  the World Commission on Culture and Development set itself
three  goals, the third of which was ?to promote a new culture
dynamic: the  culture of peace and culture of development?. The
Commission  undertook to ?endeavour to recommend the concrete
measures that could  promote, on a national and international
scale, a culture of peace? and  went on to state that:

     a of peace, culture of democracy and culture of human rights 
     are indivisible. Their effective implementation must result
     in a democratic management and ... the prevention of 
     intercultural conflicts.[1]

Peace as a goal is an ideal which will not be contested by an
government  or nation, not even the most belligerent. And the
close interdependence  of the culture of peace and the culture of
development also finds ready  acceptance. But it remains a matter
of uncertainty how far governments  are prepared to concede that
democracy and human rights are indivisible  from the culture of
peace and therefore essential to sustained  development. There is
ample evidence that culture and development can  actually be made
to serve as pretexts for resisting calls for democracy and  human
rights. It is widely known that some governments argue that 
democracy is a western concept alien to indigenous values; it has
also  been asserted that economic development often conflicts with
political  (i.e. democratic) rights and that the second should
necessarily give way to  the first. In the light of such arguments
culture and development need to  be carefully examined and defined
that they may not be used, or rather,  misused, to block the
aspirations of peoples for democratic institutions  and human
rights. 

The unsatisfactory record of development in many parts of the
world and  the ensuing need for a definition of development which
means more than  mere economic growth became a matter of vita
concern to economists and  international agencies more than a
decade ago.[2] In A New Concept of  Development, published in
1983, Francois Perroux stated that: 
     Development has not taken place: it represents a dramatic 
     growth of awareness, a promise, a matter of survival indeed; 
     intellectually, however, it is still only dimly perceived.[3] 
Later, in the same book her asserted that:

 ... personal development, the freedom of persons fulfilling  their
potential in the context of the values to which they   subscribe
and which they experience in their actions, is one of the
mainsprings of all forms of development.[4] 

His concept of development therefore gives a firm place to human
and  cultural values within any scheme for progress, economic or
otherwise.  The United Nations Development Programme too began to
spell out the  difference between growth and development in the
1980s.[5] With the  beginning of the 1990s the primacy of the
human aspect of development  was acknowledged by the UNDP with the
publication of its first Human  Development Report. And the
special focus of the 1993 Report was  people?s participation, seen
as ?the central issue of our time?.[6] 

While the concept of human development is beginning to assume a 
dominant position in the thinking of international economists and 
administrators, the Market Economy, not merely adorned with
capital  letters but seen in an almost mystic haze, is
increasingly regarded by  many governments as the quick and
certain way to material prosperity. It  is assumed that economic
measures can resolve all the problems facing  their countries.
Economics is described as the ?deus ex machina, the most 
important key to every lock of every door to the new Asia we wish
to  see?; and ?healthy economic development? is seen as

 ... essential to successfully meeting the challenge of peace and 
security, the challenge of human rights and responsibilities,  the
challenge of democracy and the rule of law, the challenge of
social justice and reform and the challenge of cultural     
renaissance and pluralism.[7]

The view that economic development is essential to peace, human
rights,  democracy and cultural pluralism, and the view that a
culture of peace,  democracy and human rights is essential to
sustained human  development, many seem on the surface to differ
only in the matter of  approach. But a closer investigation
reveals that the difference in  approach itself implies
differences of a more fundamental order. When  economics is
regarded as ?the most important key to every lock of every  door?
it is only natural that the worth of man should come to be decided 
largely, even wholly, by his effectiveness as an economic tool.[8]
This is  at variance with the vision of a world where economic,
political and  social institutions work to serve man instead of
the other way round;  where culture and development coalesce to
create an environment in  which human potential can be realized
to the full. The differing views  ultimately reflect differences
in how the valuation of the various  components of the social and
national entity are made; how such basic  concepts as poverty,
progress, culture, freedom, democracy and human  rights are
defined and, of crucial importance, who has the power to 
determine such values and definitions.

The value systems of those with access to power and of those far
removed  from such access cannot be the same. The viewpoint of the
privileged is  unlike that of the underprivileged. In the matter
of power and privilege  the difference between the haves and the
have-nots is not merely  quantitative, for it has far-reaching
psychological and ideological  implications. And many ?economic?
concerns are seldom just that, since  they are tied up with
questions of power and privilege. The problem of  poverty provides
an example of the inadequacy of a purely economic  approach to a
human situation. Even those who take a down-to-earth view  of
basic human needs agree that:

     ... whatever doctors, nutritionists, and other scientists may
say       about the objective conditions of deprivation, how the
poor      themselves perceive their deprivation is also
relevant.[9] 
The alleviation of poverty thus entails setting in motion
processes which  can change the perceptions of all those
concerned. Here power and  privilege come into play:

     The poor are powerless and have no voice. Power is the 
     responsibility of expressing and imposing one?s will in a 
     given social relationship, in the face of any resistance. The 
     poor are incapable of either imposing, coercing or, in many 
     cases, having any influence at all.[10]

It is not enough merely to provide the poor with material
assistance. They  have to be sufficiently empowered to change
their perception of  themselves as helpless and ineffectual in an
uncaring world. 

The question of empowerment is central to both culture and
development.  It decides who has the means of imposing on a nation
or society their  view of what constitutes culture and development
and who determines  what practical measures can be taken in the
name of culture and  development. The more totalitarian a system
the more power will be  concentrated in the hands of the ruling
elite and the more culture and  development will be used to serve
narrow interests. Culture has been  defined as ?the most recent,
the most highly developed means of  promoting the security and
continuity of life?.[11] Culture thus defined is  dynamic and
broad, the emphasis is on its flexible, non-compelling  qualities.
But when it is bent to serve narrow interests it becomes static 
and rigid, its exclusive aspects come to the fore and it assumes
coercive  overtones. The ?national culture? can become a bizarre
graft of carefully  selected historical incidents and distorted
social values intended to  justify the policies and actions of
those in power.[12] At the same time  development is likely to be
seen in the now outmoded sense of economic  growth. Statistics,
often unverifiable, are reeled off to prove the success  of
official measures.

Many authoritarian governments wish to appear in the forefront of 
modern progress but are reluctant to institute genuine change.
Such  governments tend to claim that they are taking a uniquely
national or  indigenous path towards a political system in keeping
with the times. In  the decades immediately after the Second World
War socialism was the  popular option. But increasingly since the
1980s democracy has gained  ground. The focus on a national or
indigenous way to socialism or  democracy has 

 ... the effect of stressing cultural continuity as both process 
and goals; this in turn obviates the necessity of defining either 
democracy or socialism in institutionally or procedurally 
specific terms; and finally, it elevates the existing political 
elite to the indispensable position of final arbiter and    
interpreter of what does or does not contribute to the      
preservation of cultural integrity.[13]

It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social
stability and  national security that democratic reforms based on
human rights are  resisted by authoritarian governments. It is
insinuated that some of the  worst ills of western society are the
result of democracy, which is seen as  the progenitor of unbridled
freedom and selfish individualism. It is  claimed, usually without
adequate evidence, that democratic values and  human rights run
counter to the national culture, and therefore to be  beneficial
they need to be modified -- perhaps to the extent that they are 
barely recognizable. The people are said to be as yet unfit for
democracy,  therefore an indefinite length of time has to pass
before democratic  reforms can be instituted.

The first form of attack is often based on the premise, so
universally  accepted that it is seldom challenged or even
noticed, that the United  States of America is the supreme example
of democratic culture. What  tends to be overlooked is that
although the USA is certainly the most  important representative
of democratic culture, it also represents many  other cultures,
often intricately enmeshed. Among these are the ?I-want- it-all?
consumer culture, megacity culture, superpower culture, frontier 
culture, immigrant culture. There is also a strong media culture
which  constantly exposes the myriad problems of American society,
from large  issues such as street violence and drug abuse to the
matrimonial  difficulties of minor celebrities. Many of the worst
ills of American  society, increasingly to be found in varying
degrees in other developed  countries, can be traced not to the
democratic legacy but to the demands  of modern materialism. Gross
individualism and cut-throat morality arise  when political and
intellectual freedoms are curbed on the one hand  while on the
other fierce economic competitiveness is encouraged by  making
material success the measure of prestige and progress. The result 
is a society where cultural and human values are set aside and
money  value reigns supreme. No political or social system is
perfect. But could  such a powerful and powerfully diverse nation
as the United States have  been prevented from disintegrating if
it had not been sustained by  democratic institutions guaranteed
by a constitution based on the  assumption that man?s capacity for
reason and justice makes free  government possible and that his
capacity for passion and injustices  makes it necessary?[14]

It is precisely because of the cultural diversity of the world
that it is  necessary for different nations and peoples to agree
on those basic human  values which will act as a unifying factor.
When democracy and human  rights are said to run counter to
non-western culture, such culture is  usually defined narrowly and
presented as monolithic. In fact the values  that democracy and
human rights seek to promote can be found in many  cultures. Human
beings the world over need freedom and security that  they may be
able to realize their full potential. The longing for a form of 
governance that provides security without destroying freedom goes
back a  long way.[15] Support for the desirability of strong
government and  dictatorship can also be found in all cultures,
both eastern and western:  the desire to dominate and the tendency
to adulate the powerful are also  common human traits arising out
of a desire for security. A nation may  choose a system that
leaves the protection of the freedom and security of  the many
dependent on the inclinations of the empowered few; or it may 
choose institutions and practices that will sufficiently empower 
individuals and organizations to protect their own freedom and
security.  The choice will decide how far a nation will progress
along the road to  peace and human development.[16]

Many of the countries in the third world now striving for
meaningful  development are multiracial societies where there is
one dominant racial  group and a number -- sometimes a large
number -- of smaller groups:  foreign, religious or ethnic
minorities. As poverty can no longer be  defined satisfactorily
in terms of basic economic needs, ?minority? can  no longer be
defined merely in terms of numbers. For example, it has  been
noted in a study of minorities in Burmese history that: 
     In the process of nation-building ... the notion of minority
in   Burma changed, as one group defines itself as a nation those 
     outside the group become minorities.
     ...
There were, of course, minorities in traditional Burma --  people
close to the power elite who considered themselves  superior and
people estranged from the power elite who were    considered
inferior. These criteria for establishing majorities  (who might
in fact be a small portion of the population as,       say, white
people in South Africa today) were not based on   race or even
ethnic group, but on access to power. Minorities,  thus, are those
people with poor access to power.[17] 
Once again, as in the case of poverty, it is ultimately a question
of  empowerment. The provision of basic material needs is not
sufficient to  make minority groups and indigenous peoples feel
they are truly part of  the greater national entity. For that they
have to be confident that they too  have an active role to play
in shaping the destiny of the state that  demands their
allegiance. Poverty degrades a whole society and threatens  its
stability while ethnic conflict and minority discontent are two
of the  greatest threats to both internal and regional peace. And
when the  dispossessed ?minority? is in fact an overwhelming
majority, as happens  in countries where power is concentrated in
the hands of the few, the  threat to peace and stability is ever
present even if unperceived. 

The Commission for a New Asia notes that:

 ... the most rapid economic transformation is most likely to     
succeed within the context of international peace and internal 
political stability, in the presence of social tranquillity,
public order and an enlightened and strong government; and in the
absence of societal turbulence and disorder.[18]

This comment highlights the link between economic, political and
social  concerns. But there is a danger that it could be
interpreted to imply that  peace, stability and public order are
desirable only as conditions for  facilitating economic
transformation rather than as ends in themselves.  Such an
interpretation would distort the very meaning of peace and 
security. It could also be used to justify strong, even if
unenlightened,  government and any authoritarian measures such as
a government may  take in the name of public order.[19]

If material betterment, which is but a means to human happiness,
is  sought in ways that wound the human spirit, it can in the long
run only  lead to greater human suffering. The vast possibilities
that a market  economy can open to developing countries can be
realized only if  economic reforms are undertaken within a
framework that recognizes  human needs. The Human Development
Report makes the point that  markets should serve people instead
of people serving markets. Further: 
 ... both state and market should be guided by the people. The    two
should work in tandem, and people should be sufficiently    
empowered to exert effective control over both.[20]

Again we come back to empowerment. It decides how widespread will
be  the benefit of actions taken in the name of culture and
development. And  this in turn will decide the extent of the
contribution such actions can  make to genuine peace and
stability. Democracy as a political system  which aims at
empowering the people is essential if sustained human 
development, which is ?development of the people for the people
by the  people?, is to be achieved. Thus it has been rightly said
that: 

     National governments must find new ways of enabling their 
     people to participate more in government and to allow them 
     much greater influence on the decisions that affect their
     lives.  Unless this is done, and done in time, the
     irresistible tide of people?s rising aspirations will
     inevitably clash with  inflexible systems, leading to
     anarchy and chaos. A rapid  democratic transition and a
     strengthening of the institutions  of civil society are the
     only appropriate responses.[21] 

The argument that it took long years for the first democratic
governments  to develop in the west is not a valid excuse for
African and Asian  countries to drag their feet over democratic
reform. The history of the  world shows that peoples and societies
do not have to pass through a  fixed series of stages in the
course of development. Moreover, latecomers  should be able to
capitalize on the experiences of the pioneers and avoid  the
mistakes and obstacles that impeded early progress. The idea of 
?making haste slowly? is sometimes used to give backwardness the 
appearance of measured progress. But in a fast developing world
too  much emphasis on ?slowly? can be a recipe for disaster.

There will be as many kinds of democracies as there are nations
which  accept it as a form of government. No single type of
?western democracy?  exists; nor is democracy limited to a mere
handful of forms such as the  American, British, French or Swiss.
Each democratic country will have  its own individual
characteristics. With the spread of democracy to  Eastern Europe
the variety in the democratic style of government will  increase.
Similarly there cannot be one form of Asian democracy; in each 
country the democracy system will develop a character that accords
with  its social, cultural and economic needs. But the basic
requirement of a  genuine democracy is that the people should be
sufficiently empowered  to be able to participate significantly
in the governance of their country.  The thirty articles of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights are  aimed at such
empowerment. Without these rights democratic institutions  will
be but empty shells incapable of reflecting the aspirations of the 
people and unable to withstand the encroachment of
authoritarianism. 

The democracy process provides for political and social change
without  violence. The democracy tradition of free discussion and
debate allows  for the settlement of differences without resort
to armed conflict. The  culture of democracy and human rights
promotes diversity and dynamism  without disintegration; it is
indivisible from the culture of development  and the culture of
peace. It is only by giving firm support to movements  that seek
to empower the people through democratic means that the  United
Nations and its agencies will truly be able to promote the culture 
of peace and the culture of development.

               ***

Let me in conclusion summarize my argument. The true development
of  human beings involves much more than mere economic growth. At
its  heart there must be a sense of empowerment and inner
fulfillment. This  aloe will ensure that human and cultural values
remain paramount in a  world where political leadership is often
synonymous with tyranny and  the rule of a narrow elite. People?s
participation in social and political  transformation is the
central issue of our time. This can only be achieved  through the
establishment of societies which place human worth above  power,
and liberation above control. In this paradigm, development 
requires democracy, the genuine empowerment of the people. When
this  is achieved, culture and development will naturally coalesce
to create an  environment in which all are valued, and every kind
of human potential  can be realised. The alleviation of poverty
involves processes which  change the way in which the poor
perceive themselves and the world.  Mere material assistance is
not enough; the poor must have the sense that  they themselves can
shape their own future. Most totalitarian regimes fear  change,
but the longer they put off genuine democratic reform the more 
likely it is that even their positive contributions will be
vitiated: the  success of national policies depends on the willing
participation of the  people. Democratic values and human rights,
it is sometimes claimed, run  counter to ?national? culture, and
all too often the people at large are  seen as ?unfit? for
government. Nothing can be further from the truth.  The challenge
we now face is for the different nations and peoples of the  world
to agree on a basic set of human values, which will serve as a 
unifying force in the development of a genuine global community.
True  economic transformation can then take place in the context
of  international peace and internal political stability. A rapid
democratic  transition and strengthening of the institutions of
civil society are the  sine qua non for this development. Only
then will we be able to look to a  future where human beings are
valued for what they are rather than for  what they produce. If
the UN and its agencies wish to assist this  development they must
support these movements which seek to empower  the people,
movements which are founded on democracy, and which will  one day
ensure a culture of peace and of development.


______________________________________________________
[FOOTNOTES:]


[1] ?Draft Preliminary Outline of the World Report on Culture and 
Development?. UNESCO, CCD-III/94/Doc. 2, Paris, 7 Feb. 1994, p.
16. 
[2] It has been pointed out that the idea of growth not as an end
in itself  but as a performance test of development was put
forward by economists  as early as the 1950s; Paul Streeten et
al., First Things First: Meeting  Basic Human Needs in the
Developing Countries, Oxford, 1982 edn. [3] Francois Perroux, A
New Concept of Development, UNESCO, Paris,  1983, p. 2.

[4] Ibid., p. 180.

[5] ?Growth normally means quantifiable measure of a society?s
overall  level of production or incomes such as GNP or GDP per
capita, while  development involves qualitative aspects of a
society?s advancement such  as under- and un-employment, income
distribution pattern, housing  situation, nutritional level,
sanitary condition, etc.? UNDP Selected  Sectoral Reviews:
[?Burma] December 1988, p. 333.

[6] Human Development Report 1993, UNDP, Oxford, 1993, p. 1. [7]
Towards A New Asia, A Report of the Commission for A New Asia, 
1994, p. 39.

[8] ?The logic of an economy governed by solvency and by profit,
subject  to the increasing value attached to capital and to the
power of those who  command it is to reject as ?non-economic?
everything which cannot be  immediately translated into quantities
and prices in market terms:: Paul- Marc Henry (ed.), Poverty,
Progress and Development, London, 1991, p.  30.

[9] Streeten et al., First Things First, p. 19.

[10] Henry (ed.), Poverty, Progress and Development. p. 34. [11]
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago, 1993 edn., vol. 16, p. 
874.

[12] Edward Said comments that governments in general use culture
as a  means of promoting nationalism: ?To launder the cultural
past and  repaint it in garish nationalist colors that irradiate
the whole society is  now so much a fact of contemporary life as
to be considered natural?. See  Edward Said, ?Nationalism, Human
Rights, and Interpretation?, in  Barbara Johnson (ed.), Freedom
and Interpretation: The Oxford Amnesty  Lectures, 1992, New York,
1993, p. 191.

[13] Harry M. Scoble and Laurie S. Wiseberg (eds.), Access to
Justice:  Human Rights Struggles in South East Asia, London, 1985,
p. 57. 

[14] See Clinton Rossiter?s introduction to Hamilton, Madison and
Jay,  The Federalist Papers, Chicago, 1961. I owe thanks to Lady
Patricia  Gore-Booth for the original quotation on which Rossiter
presumably  based his words: ?Man?s capacity for justice makes
democracy possible;  but man?s inclination to injustice makes
democracy necessary?, from  Reinhold Niebuhr?s foreword to his
Children of Light and Children of  Darkness: A Vindication of
Democracy and a Critique of its Traditional  Defence, London,
1945.

[15] ?The best government is that which governs least? are the
words of a  westerner, John L. O?Sullivan, but more than a
thousand years before  O?Sullivan was born it was already written
in the Lao Tzu, A Chinese  classic, that ?the best of all rulers
is but a shadowy presence to his  subjects?. The notion that ?In
a nation the people are the most important,  the State is next and
the rulers the least important? is to be found not in  the works
of a modern western political theorist but in that of Mencius. 
[16]Ehran Naraghi has shown in his memoirs, From Palace to Prison: 
Inside the Iranian Revolution, London, 1994, that a critical
attitude  towards the monarch, decentralization of power and
divisions of  responsibilities were part of oriental tradition.
His fascinating  conversations with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
throw into relief the  dangers of cultural and development
policies divorced from the  aspirations of the people.

[17] Ronald D. Renard, ?Minorities in Burmese History?, in K.M.
de  Silva et al. (eds.), Ethnic Conflict in Buddhist Societies:
Sri Lanka,  Thailand and Burma, London, 1988, p. 79.

[18] Towards New Asia, p. 40.

[19] ?Practically any human behaviour can be, and historically has
bee,  rationalized as threatening to damage the security of the
nation?: Scoble  and Wiseberg (eds.), Access to Justice, p. 58.

[20] [?Human] Development Report 1993, p. 53.

[21] Ibid., p. 5. Scoble and Wiseberg (eds.), Access to Justice,
p. 5, point  out the difference between fundamental reform that
?involves a  redistribution of power, a broadening of
participation and influence in  the making of authoritative
decisions? and contingent reform that  ?involves a sharing of the
benefits of power holding, or the uses of  power, in order to
avoid the sharing of power itself?.
--------------------------------------------------------------


BURMANET: THINKING ABOUT VOLUNTEERING?
April 26, 1995

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